CFC FFL Singapore – Sharing God’s Love to Us
First of all I am writing this topic to share the wonders of God's love to me and to share His love to all of us. Ever since I came here to Singapore and started a commitment to my never ending personal development blog, the next best thing that came to my life was God's community. CFC FFL Singapore (Couples For Christ – Foundation for Family and Life) is a community of God's love and a commitment to my spiritual growth. I remember writing a Family Mission Statement based from one of our household gatherings which was a challenge for me and for other brothers and sisters in Christ as well. What really touched me was when my wife told me about my 7 year old son, Jed's sharing about family mission statement in school. Her teacher really appreciated and thanked us for our son's sharing. She wished that if only every family will practice the same kind of teachings, our country will be a better place to live in. Wow! that brought tears to my eyes. It was never my plan to join any religious program or organization having attended different religious groups from the past. I attended my first seminar during the second half of 2008 when my friend invited me and told me that dinner was free. Without hesitation I attended the seminar with the food in my mind and did it again and again for the next series of seminars or talks. Yes I was indeed nourished by the food served to us. But it was from the talks and sharing of personal experiences that gave me the nourishment of my spirit. It is truly a blessing to belong to a community of God’s servants considering that my family is not with me here in Singapore. When you're alone working in a foreign country, any temptations are possible. CFC FFL community is a place where you can share your personal problems, inspirational stories, love, gratitude, fun and the smiles the can melt a heart. Indeed a family that you can count on whatever prayer requests you need, whether for a good health, a good career, or just a better relationship. Here, I was able to communicate my personal challenges in life, my experiences in personal development and also learned from others more challenging experiences. When I listened to other people's experiences, I realized that my personal challenges are small compared to their life experiences. I heard about a wife leaving a successful business in the Philippines despite family and friends continuous discouragement of living a new life to be with her husband and family. Others shared their success and blessings from their career through continuous hard work, persistence and prayers. Truly with God nothing is impossible. It is through our abilities to believe, to desire and unwavering faith that we can achieve what we want in life. I highly encouraged those who are away from their loved ones or for those who simply need peace at home with their family to seek us to share God's love. I'm not limiting your choices to our group, there are also wonderful communities that will suit to your culture, religion, beliefs, or faith. What is important is you develop a personal and spiritual relationship with God and the people that you can connect with your life experiences. I assure and guarantee you that the time you spend with God and the relationship you develop with your community is truly worthy of your time. To you, I offer you my short prayer of gratitude for visiting my site. I wish and pray for you all the good things that you deserved in life. To share the blessings that you deserved to our fellow.To learn from the bad things to become a better person. Please share God's Love to Us, Amen!
I have added this related topic Servants for Family and Life since someone from Philippines searched about - how to trust an ofw husband working in singapore. I hope, in my little way I was able to give you some ideas.
PS . Here's a teaching by Fr. Francis Gustillo about CFC FFL and Symbols of St. John. Also, please checkout How To Pray Effectively!. God Bless!
How to Deal with Homesickness and Challenges as an Expatriate
How to Deal with Homesickness and Challenges as an Expatriate (Overseas Filipino Worker or OFW, in our local term)?
- Living a Life away from home and family.
It has been more than 2 years since I worked here in Singapore as a Mechanical CAD Engineer for a Marine and Offshore Engineering/Consultancy firm. Working in a mixed diverse culture can be challenging especially when you’re 1,486 miles apart from the Philippines. It was really tough working in my first few months here as I have to deal with different personalities (egocentrics) being the only Filipino from an Indian dominated company.
In my first few months here in Singapore, I invested a lot of money from my long distance calls to the Philippines. After sometime, I managed to invest a laptop and a PC at home. With the current technology of internet, my family is just a computer away through Skype or Instant Messenger.
Being alone can really be tough so here are some of my effective tips to keep you active;
- Believe You Can Lah – You are the Best!
In my first few months, I received discouraging remarks from my senior colleagues about my poor drafting work. I was told that I was very slow and I must admit that I have challenges in 2D Drafting since I was hired there for my expertise in 3D modelling software (AutoCAD Inventor). My self-esteem was affected and lessened. These people can not even suggest how I can increase my speed and effectiveness when I asked them, so now I know where I stand. Here’s what I did, come closer so that you can hear me and so that you can apply this as well to your life if ever, I simply psyched myself up. Deep in my mind, I was shouting within myself that “I am the BEST and FASTEST “(repeatedly over and over again) while I was doing my 2D design detailing job. Well, it didn’t work right away but after sometime when I submitted my work for review, this guy told me, “You’re so fast huh”.
- Simply Connect
Days before my flight to Singapore, I simply get in touched with my friends, school mates so that they can help me in securing a place to stay. They are even generous to offer their place while am looking for my own place to stay. I managed to get a room for myself by joining some online forums. Google will always be there to help you connect.
- Join Groups, Meetups, Seminars, Sports Activities – Connect More
Even before I arrived here in Singapore, my friend already told me that he included me in their basketball line up for the coming basketball league. Joining sports activities will always be a good way to connect with different people as well as to keep you physically fit. Speaking of being physically fit, I managed to join a health fitness gym just in front of our office building.
My friend was the one who introduced me to join our University Alumni Organization (University of the Philippines Alumni Association of Singapore). This organization offered a lot of activities like seminars, sports, tambayans (a place for hanging out), and a lot of fun. I recommend you to check out your college/university alumni organization.
I would highly recommend that you join religious community in your area. Here you can share your personal challenges in life and you’re assured of trust and confidentiality. Most of all you’ll have a deeper relationship with God. In my case I joined, Couples for Christ – Foundation for Family and Life which I considered as a gasoline station for my soul and spirit.
Meetups and Seminars – one way of reinforcing your beliefs or if you want
To learn and grow is by attending seminars. This is how I develop myself which I will not find in my job.
- Read Books a lot – in my case listening to audiobooks
If there is one thing that I love about Singapore is the public library, my wealth of knowledge. Public Libraries are very accessible in every corner of Singapore. When I read their Vision and Mission, I was inspired that I can see the passion that it brings to Singapore; I’m sharing here their vision
“An inspiring beacon of lifelong learning, bringing knowledge alive, sparking imagination and creating possibility for a vibrant and creative Singapore. Spurring the heights of imagination from the depths of our resources. This is our vision, our NLB”
I would love to hear from your experiences living away from your family as an expatriate.
Personal Branding, the PURPLE CAT way
Last night was another great night that you shouldn’t missed every end of the month on a Friday. Why, it was the second “Personal Excellence and Growth Meetup” and the topic was Stand Out from the Crowd! Learn to Create a Personal Brand! I must say it’s getting better and bigger (more crowd and great food).
Personal Branding is something that is uniquely yours. It is something that helps people to remember You. What do you think if you hear the word, Trump? you’re right, skyscrapers, The Apprentice (You’re Fired!), and oops, his hair. What about Oprah? I believe everything she says will turn into gold, imagine her Book Club and other organizations. Her famous tag lines, ”You are responsible for your own life”, “Live Your Best Life”. Think about the famous brands in the market, say Nike is equivalent to “Just Do It” . What about when you hear “It keeps going, and going, and going…” yes, you’re right its our neighbor who kept on yelling non-stop at her husband for whatever reason. OK, it was Energizer Batteries.
There must be a purpose for those slogans or names. Personal branding can only happen if you have a Purpose. What do you really want for Your life? What don’t You want in you life? What have You settled for?
You need to define your USP or Unique Selling Proposition. What will make your customers buy from You (ideas) instead from others. In order for you to understand your USP, you need to know 1.) Your Strengths 2.) Your Skills 3.) Your Values 4.) Your Passions.
You need to Reinvent Yourself. It means that you must unlearn (things that will not help you grow), learn (that will help you grow) and relearn (making a habit of continuous growing). Ask yourself, what’s missing with this picture? Here’s a very nice quote from one of my favorite (invisible) guru Zig Ziglar, ” Go as Far as You can See and when You get There, You will always be able to See Farther.” Reinvention is about maximizing your Assets (strengths) and camouflaging your Liabilities (weaknesses). Be aware of how You are communicating with Yourself. Talk to yourself in front of the mirror and say “I’m the Best” as often as you want and feel what you’ve said.
Bringing Passion into the pursuit of Your dreams is critical if You are to dream Big and achieve those dreams. Please refer to my previous post for more information, Finding Your Passion! Furthermore, you can ask some questions;
- What do I love to Do? – look for elements in your Job that you feel good, it could be Your friends, relationships or anything.
- What do I enjoy Doing?
- What gives me an adrenaline rush?
- What do I feel proud of?
Here’s another great way to psyche up yourself, You need to Look Good and Feel Great. The greatest risk to a reputation is his/her failure to factor image into his/her success in business or career. Here’s a circle of Success Cycle, if you Feel Great then you will Look Good. If You Look Good then You will Project Well. If you Project Well then You will have a Positive Response and when you respond positively then you will Feel Great (back to the start, see the cycle).
There is never a second chance to your Signature Look. Here are some tips to work on your signature look;
- Capitalise on your Assets – these could be your physical, your pearly white smile, your eyes, your nose, your gorgeous body
- Dress to suit your Body Shape
- Go for your Colors – enhancing your instant switch (power on) to your Glowingness
- You need to understand your Dress Style
- Dress to suit your environment or audience – you can dress a level up from your environment without being overdressed.
For me, most of the times, my wife made good recommendations for the clothes that I wear and did get some good compliments from colleagues in the office. So better include your wife or girlfriend whenever you want to select the dress style you want and be sure to you are comfortable wearing it.
Excite Others by developing a WOW statement or signature will get others to say WOW. A signature wow is a personal style that you did with a special touch. To guide you ask yourself;
- What am I known for?
- What do I want to stand for?
- Am I making a difference?
The sacred trinity for a Brand’s Success is 1. Clarity 2. Consistency and 3. Authenticity
- Does the message that you want to send to your target audience or public at large have clarity?
- Are you consistent in the image you project to others?
- How authentic are you? Are you true to Yourself?
Lastly, Tell the World! Position and Promote Yourself. Be visible.
My take on this is, Just Be Yourself at Your own Very Best All the Time.
Be-YourSelf-Brand
PS
The next Meetup topic on August 28 will be on Persuasive Communication – The art of moving people through to action. Check more info at this site. See you there!
HINT: Don’t you know that the bold words above, is an abbreviation of PURPLE CAT. check it if you got it.
Finding Your Passion!
I had a great time last night at our
Just to share some bits from what I’ve learned about finding your passion. Passion is something that fuels your purpose, why you are here in this world.
Passion is something you
- love to do
- enjoy doing it
- feel strongly about it
- are drawn to it ( attracts)
- feel good doing it
- like to talk about it ( again and again)
- feel excited about it
- want to keep doing it
- can show expression
from my own experience, it is something that I kept on thinking about it even when am asleep or at work, I spend a lot of time and energy on it, i write about it (now you know why I have a blog).
So what about you? Share me your Passion.
Success Journal
success journal
Finally with the help of my wife, I managed to create a success journal. This will be my greatest gift to myself of all occasions (father’s day, birthday, new year, etc) so far. Btw, thanks to my wife for creating it patiently. You see I do a lot of note taking whenever I attended a talk, seminar, learning experiences, ideas, from books I read, friends that I talked to but I wrote this mostly in sheets of paper, notebooks (runs out of pages quickly). So this time I make sure its a thick one that will last longer.
Global Internet Seminar day3
Just like day 2, the last day was as exciting and a great learning experience. I missed the opening sharing of the CEO of Success Resources, Mr. Richard Tan but nevertheless still got a good seat in the second row. Thanks to my friend Joy Ongkiko for reserving seats for us with Je Malata who came later.
The first marketer was Adam Ginsberg, the only guru on eBay for the whole event. He presented on how to buy, sell and profit on the internet thru eBay. He came up with some cool software (beta) that is very simple, step by step through an audience who volunteered on stage. Wow, $100 was awarded to the volunteer just by following Adam’s instruction on what to key in, not bad huh. It was actually my first time to learn about the ins and outs of eBay since I have no experience. He’ll be back on August 21-23 for the eBay boot camp here in Singapore.
Next speaker was Stephen Pierce. The first half of his talk was more on inspirational, motivational stuffs about his experiences from nothing. In his rare bad experience, he told us that he got hit by a bullet in his knees due to his involvement with a gang fight. That was the turning point of his life and worked his way up to where he is now as one of the top internet marketers in the world.
According to him, there are 8 characteristics of the perfect internet money making opportunities for you;
- has rabid market of buyers
- system finds, gets, keeps and grows customers for you
- has multiple products deep sales funnel
- allows you to make +$1000 per sale
- pays you on other peoples marketing (affiliates)
- allows you to earn 24/7 (as money never sleeps)
- stuffs monthly residual cash into your bank account
- allows you to focus on one thing
“Internet does not require your permission but it requires your participation.”
On the last half of his talk he showed step by step hands on how to create a blogspot and used this as an affiliate campaign for Amazon (sort of your landing page for a particular product).
Steps to create an internet income were as follows;
- Create it (your website)
- Ping it (pingler.com)
- Social bookmark it
- Directories RSS, twitter
- Build of links
You need to sell what people buy and only sell to the buyers.
Hot tip: search on Amazon on bestsellers.
Next marketer was an upcoming 28 y.o. guy from Vince Tan who took his parents together with him (seated in the front row just in front of us). My friend was struck by this guy, she couldn’t imagined how it was to be mentored by him. She told me that she will just stare at him all day.hahaha. Imagination.
Vince started showing his success accomplishments. His first was the product Adsense Black Hat Edition which generated him SGD 14,500. His next hit was a great idea that they created while they were on an MRT about their sendUsTo.US campaign with their goal of being able to attend Mike Filsaime seminar which generated them a 100K SGD (not bad huh). And successes after success like BiggestFireSaledotCom, MegaRedPacketdotCom.
He shared his 3 Fundamental concepts which were;
1.) Triple W – win, win, and win
2.) Massiveness (packaging, instant products + Double Quattro)
3.) Guru Mind Control (Joint Venture/Network) – here he showed how he used skills on communications by being the Master, The Force, The Negotiator and The Joker.
From these concepts he showed case studies about the products I mentioned above one by one.
Lastly, I think it was the best quote I heard from him, “Internet Marketing is not Rocket Science but it’s enough Science to Rocket your Income”. Wow!
The last speaker was Greg Cesar (every time I listened to him, he reminds me of Eddie Murphy). He’s a very down to earth guy who will stop his talk just for a pose if someone’s taking a photo shot. He’s just funny. By the way, I got his business card which he managed to give after the talk.
Kidding aside, he’s the Google Adwords guru that will teach you to get qualified traffic with less money to spend. He knows what it takes to make your site sell.
I love quotes so here’s another one that I take note of “The Quality of your Life will be based on the Quality of your Questions”.
So why Adwords because of traffic, control, fast, instant and easier.
Here are some Mindset Marketing Questions;
- Who are they?
- What are they looking for?
- Where are they getting it?
- Why do they want it?
- When do they need it?
There are lots of stuffs that I didn’t include here since I’m still deciphering my notes but if you’re looking for instant traffic at less bids for Adwords Campaign. Greg Cesar is the guy.
In the end, the event was very successful as what Success Resources have been always known for. I’m sure everyone learned a lot and gained new friends as well as I did.
Global Internet Seminar day 2
I managed to attend the 2nd day Global Internet Seminar at the Expo, Singapore which started 9am until 7pm. I didn’t attend the first day obviously since I still have a work in the office. The first speaker of the day was the CEO of Success Resources (organizer of the event) Mr. Richard Tan who shared his extraordinary experience in organizing a big event in UK with just 2 months to fill the 5,000 capacity auditorium. Richard was followed by Christopher Guerriero an expert in the health and wellness thru his site HealthlifeDotCom. I learned a new idea from him about how to create a book in 30 days or less in just 7 simple steps.
He gave us some words similar to T. Harv Eker’s (TFAR method). His was Words – Thoughts- Feelings- Actions- Results. Hhhmm…looked familiar to me. There were 3 things in the mind of the average people; 1. Wait 2. Watch 3. Wish. Can you relate to this one? Then am sorry you’re an average person.
Here’s a saying that also caught me “True Wealth - stop chasing money instead chase self improvement” Wow, amen to that my friend!
Hot tip: How to create you book in 30 days or less!
1. Choose you subject (Passion + experience) – 1 full day
2. Write out main topics to cover in bullet points. - Half day max
3. Gather information for each topic. – 2-3 days
4. Record everything you know each topic individually (1 day)
5. Transcribe it (48 hours)
6. Send it to an editor to make you sound professional.
7. Get it typeset and professional looking.
There were just so much in his program that I can’t write it here. Check him out in Success Magazine as he was featured there as the time of this event. He was also being endorsed by Bob Proctor of the phenomenal The Secret.
The next speaker was Ewen Chia, World’s #1 Super Affiliate Internet Marketing Guy. It was his second talk from the first day (which I missed). Just like other speakers, he shared his humble life story. There were 3 simple steps to making online money fast, first is NICHE, second was WEBSITE (obviously) and last VISITORS.
Well what really caught our attention there was his Instant Website Generator which all you need to do is fill up the blanks like your affiliate logins. I would say it’s a website for the lazy (easy to setup) and it promotes itself with dynamic self updating with fresh contents, news article, videos. Unfortunately, he’s not selling the software and only available if you enrol to his seminar as one of the many packages.
Btw, he showed his clickbank account to show the difference from the first day (sort of a challenge). I can’t remember the figures but I bet it’s worth your month’s salary. Haha!
Tom Hua, Internet Business in-A-Box guy from Australia but originally from China (correct me if I’m wrong). First impression was his height (small) but with a big heart, a true blue entrepreneur with lots of business both online and offline. Just like Ewen Chia, his concepts of internet marketing are much the same, 1. Product 2. Website 3. Traffic. I didn’t take much notes here since he gave us a link of his site where in we can download the PowerPoint. Not bad huh since you can just purely concentrate on his ideas without being caught in scribbling notes. (Let me know if you want a piece of it…hmm)
Patric Chan, (How to Start Your Own Internet Business Today) is a guy that I can also relate to since this guy is into personal development. He shared his LEAP (stands for Leverage Expert And Partnership).
His LEAP formulas were;
- Product Ownership
- Leverage on other Business to Promote you
- Create an Info Product
- Membership program for Passive Income
- Partnership with Others
- Become an Expert in Your Niche
- Use an automation system
AFAIK, he’ll be having a 2 day leap program this coming July 11&12 here in Singapore.
Lastly, Andy Hun and looked like an upcoming guru in the scene since only few people were left (about less than 30). He shared about SkyQuestCom program which was own by Richard Tan.
I came a bit late since its an hour MRT ride to home.
Checkout Day 3.
You Can Create Wealth seminar
I managed to attend a seminar by KC See that I got from an ad in pinoysg.com by Sherwin Enriquez. It was held in Expo and it was my first time to go there. I followed the signage but took me a very long walk to reach the place. Before I reached the place I was wondering why lots of people (looks like in thousands) and lots of poster of a man named Harv Eker. I asked someone and I thought if that was the event that am going to attend but they asked for a ticket. They point me to a place nearby where the event I was looking for.
So finally I reached a small room and managed to sit in the front row. The first half of the seminar was about a talk on real estate investments by a guy named Mr. Patrick Lim as a substitute for the Queen of Properties Ms. Renesial Leong. The other half was from the founder of Money Mastery Mr. KC See. You can check about them at Masteryasia.com.
I was impressed and guessed what I was actually sold…thats how I take action.
